After Can't Buy Me Love, it seemed that Dempsey was destined to compete for roles opposite other dreamboats of the era, such as John Cusack. But things quickly went the way of Judd Nelson instead. In fact, Dempsey's run of flops was so spectacularly bad that there's something almost artful and Ed Wood-like about them when viewed as a whole. ''I think I self-sabotaged,'' Dempsey says without hesitation. ''The responsibility of that kind of success early on was overwhelming.''